Police vs. Pregnant Women

From the Files of the Nineveh PDby William Norman GriggLife was uncomplicated for emissaries of the Assyrian Empire. They weren’t burdened by conscience, or hindered by the need to make moral distinctions. Their role was to extract tribute for the king in Nineveh, destroy all potential resistance to his rule, and maintain order. To that end they dispensed aggressive violence without pretense or pity, and didn’t flinch from targeting women – including expectant mothers.

At some point within the last decade or so, American police adopted a modified version of the Assyrian model of law enforcement. This helps to explain why it is now considered permissible for a police officer to assault an uncooperative but non-violent pregnant woman.

Police claim that they had arrived at the house to investigate a “disturbance” involving several people in the neighborhood. By the time they arrived, the fight – assuming that one had taken place – had dissipated. Rather than making sure nobody was hurt and then leaving, the police claimed that “tumultuous behavior” justified their involvement.

That’s when Krull escalated the incident by assaulting Brenda. As Krull threw her up against a vehicle, Brenda cried out, “Get off of me, you’re going to kill my baby” just seconds before the officer punched the woman in the back of the head and hurled her face-first to the ground. In the video, the victim is heard moaning, “My baby, oh my baby” as the officer continues his assault, kneeing her in the back and forcing her to put weight on her stomach.

Rochester PD Chief James Sheppard defended the actions of his trained simian, praising him for using “tremendous restraint.” He blamed Miss Hardaway for the assault she suffered, and described the blow to the back of her head as a “distractionary” strike. “When we receive resistance from an individual, we may strike you in a way that changes your channel, so to speak,” the chief smugly explained. “In a way that changes your resistance.”

And when this tactic fails to subdue a pregnant woman, the Assyrian mercenaries under Sheppard’s supervision feel entitled to throw her face-down onto a sidewalk.

Romengeno was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and a single count of resisting arrest. Miss Hardaway was booked on several charges, including felonious assault on a law enforcement officer.

It’s worth remembering that all of this was supposedly justified because the police were dealing with “tumultuous behavior” – that is, the impermissible offense called “contempt of cop.”

A pregnant mother and an elderly woman were collateral victims in yet another episode involving “tumultuous” behavior. In April of last year, three Rochester cops swarmed and beat an innocent 25-year-old man named Jose Lugo, who was hospitalized after being subjected to “distractionary strikes.”

Lugo was walking on a street near the home where he had lived for several years when a Rochester police cruiser suddenly screeched to a halt next to him and decanted three officers – Kevin Flanagan, Joel Hasper, and Richard Doran – who seized the bemused young man and started to drag him away.

When Lugo asked why he was being abducted, the assailants threw him to the ground, kicked him, beat him, and tasered him at least three times. The thugscrum expanded to fifteen as reinforcements arrived. Lugo’s aunt, Annette Velzquez, pleaded with the officers to stop beating her nephew, then informed themthat she was going to call Chief Sheppard, whom she had met while working in the local school district. Backup officer Benjamin Mitchell responded by shoving Velazquez, stealing her cell phone, pepper-spraying her, and arresting her. A pregnant mother and an elderly mother were also attacked by Mitchell or his comrades.

While Lugo was in the hospital – where he was kept under armed guard by the gang that had inflicted his injuries -- he was charged with “assaulting” the armed bullies who had put him there.

This follows long-established procedure: Any time a police officer goes “hands-on” with an innocent victim, the victim is charged with a crime to consecrate the laying-on of hands as a ministration of official justice, rather than an act of criminal violence. Lugo had to endure six months of expensive and unnecessary legal harassment before being acquitted of the spurious charges.

Raven Dozier of DeKalb County, Georgia was likewise charged with a crime after she and her then-unborn child were assaulted by a police officer. Dozier, who was nine months pregnant, was present when police arrived to deal with a domestic dispute between her brother and his girlfriend. She had actually been urging her brother to cooperate with the officers – until the point at which they threw him to the ground, attacked him with “distractionary strikes,” and tasered him.

“He’s on the ground!” Dozier cried in horror. “You don’t need to do that!”

Displaying the refinement that typifies those who follow his loathsome profession, one of the officers snarled at Dozier to “Shut the f**k up!” To punctuate that directive, Officer Jerad Wheeler strode up to the sobbing and horrified woman and kicked her in the stomach with sufficient force to open a door.

Dozier’s brother was dragged out of the house, and several police conferred on the front porch. After one of them pointed out that they had a problem because Wheeler had “kicked a pregnant woman,” another observed that they had to “charge her with something.”

Raven Dozier's injuries.

A few minutes later, Dozier – who was recovering from the assault – was approached by the on-scene supervisor, who in a voice of affected concern said that the officers needed to take her photograph. He instructed her to put on her shoes and follow him outside.

The instant Dozier crossed the threshold of her home, Dozier was arrested for “obstruction” and taken away in handcuffs to the DeKalb County Jail. The intake officer, who possessed some residual decency, refused to book the victim. He demanded that Dozier be taken to the hospital, where she passed a small issue of blood and amniotic fluid.

Her son, Levii, was born by way of an emergency C-section a few weeks later. Doctors informed her that the kick to her abdomen had been delivered with sufficient force to cause the child to defecate in utero – which means that he had the sh*t kicked out of him by a police officer before he was born.

Wheeler is a police officer, which means he is trained to lie, given social permission to lie, and does so without hesitation. In his official report of the incident, Wheeler falsely claimed that he was dealing with an “aggressive” woman and that he used “a front push kick to the abdomen, as [I] was taught to do at the academy” – once again, as a “distractionary” strike. It was only after he arrested this “aggressive” woman that he supposedly noticed her condition. His potentially fatal act of criminal violence was ratified by his superiors, who blithely stated that it was “within policy.”

Police in Ocean City, Maryland also “acted appropriately” when they tackled and assaulted 24-year-old Dalima Ekundayo Ibironke Palmer, who was part of a group being investigated for – what else? – “tumultuous” behavior at a local beach. Palmer was nine months pregnant, a fact that was obvious to horrified onlookers who pleaded with the police as they wrestled with the woman. Shortly after being abducted, Palmer underwent an emergency c-section – but not before being hit with four charges, including assault on a police officer.

In at least two separate cases, police have attacked pregnant women who went to them seeking help.

Jacksonville, Florida resident Melanie Williams, who was seven months pregnant, went into premature labor and called 911. Bleeding and dizzy, Williams decided not to wait for help and drove herself to the hospital, running a red light en route.

Valreca Redden was tasered by police in Dayton, Ohio when she visited a suburban police station to request that her one-year-old son be taken into protective custody. After speaking briefly with the police, she changed her mind and said, “I’m leaving.” Despite the fact that Redden wasn’t suspected of a crime, she was told that she wasn’t free to leave.

Officer Michael Wilmer grabbed the thirteen-month-old child with one arm and used the other to shove the mother to the floor. A second officer materialized and attempted to handcuff the screaming woman. When she resisted, he applied a taser to the back of her neck. Redden was charged with “resisting and obstructing”; as she was being checked into jail, one of the officers discovered that she was visibly pregnant.

Seattle resident Malaika Brooks was seven months pregnant when she was stopped for speeding while driving her 11-year-old son to school. When presented with the extortion note, Mrs. Brooks refused to sign it, assuming that by doing so she would be admitting guilt. The officer then attempted to arrest her for violating a “law” that defines such a refusal as a “crime.” Not surprisingly, Mrs. Brooks didn’t allow herself to be kidnaped without putting up as much resistance as possible.

Three officers were dispatched to put down this intolerable act of defiance. Officer Juan Ornelas twisted Brooks’ arm behind her back while Officer Donald Jones applied a taser to her left thigh, then her left arm, and then to her neck. Mrs. Brooks, who was left with permanent scars, was later found guilty of refusing to sign the ticket –a misdemeanor charge – and acquitted of resisting arrest.

Once again: The infraction that supposedly justified the use of electroshock torture was a misdemeanor.

Brooks filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle and its Police Department. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the police had used excessive force. The court also decided that the officers enjoyed limited immunity because in 2004, when the incident occurred, it had not been clearly established that using a taser in “drive-stun” mode against a very pregnant woman suspected of a traffic violation constituted excessive force.

That ruling provoked a paroxysm of theatrical outrage from police unions, and an appeal by the officers who had attacked Brooks. In their petition of certiorari to the US Supreme Court (which was rejected), the officers whined that the ruling “effectively strips officers of the authority to use any pain compliance technique to control an actively resisting arrestee.”

In an amicus brief filed on behalf of the officers, the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs’ Association predicted that the limited exoneration granted to the thugs who assaulted Brooks (and her unborn child) threatened the existence of “the rule of law” itself.

“It won’t be long before the word spreads throughout society’s criminal underground that the Ninth Circuit hasn’t simply given them a `get out of jail free’ card, but a `never have to go to jail in the first place’ card,” insisted the brief.

In other words: Unless police have unrestricted “authority” to beat and torture pregnant women suspected of trivial offenses, lawful order will collapse. One can easily imagine similar claims being made by the revenue-gatherers and dispensers of punitive violence who were employed by Sargon II or some other ancient Assyrian ruler.
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William Norman Grigg publishes the Pro Libertate blog and hosts the Pro Libertate radio program.

@7469, which people are you referring to? The police, or, info libs writers?

Mr. Grigg is "out of league," so to speak, but, not to such an extent, that I wouldn't fail to notice his grammatical error in the opening paragraph. he's used the word: "nor," in previous post, which tells me that the "error" was deliberate.

seems we're being redirected to the past - the a(SS)yrian empire... I've looked at it briefly, though, the readily available history on the Assyrians, omits a great deal. i don't feel up for un-riddling the past, but, if people want to know how the past influences the present - study the Roman's religion. the cartel is big on name-changing (aka "newspeak") but, when you apply Moses's numerology to the Roman's cosmic gods.... Well, you can rewrite the future

Ok since it has not been addressed, would these defenders of liberty and justice like it if their wives or girfriends who were pregnant would want a person to exact the same brutish cro-magnon behavior towards their women? The answer is fuck no and they would probably not be able to control themselves in a civilized manner , oh no they most likely would retaliate with lethal force and then be aquitted of any and all charges, typical of for thee but not me fucktards attitude. Believe me if it was my daughters or wife being tossed around by these fucks they would pay more than a pound of flesh, they would would be slayed like the dogs they are. Christ on a stick this is just out of control and accountability is a foreign word to these maggots.

Dude............Dude.............You write as though you are pompous ass. There is such a thing as beautiful simplicity. Adding unneeded verbosity to your arguments is not only inefficient - it is repellent. It speaks volumes about your lack of intellectual self-esteem. You're like a cake with 7 layers of icing - and all people want is just cake.

I would much rather read an article, grammatical or not, by Grigg than by yourself. At least Grigg doesn't waste my time. If you wrote an article, it would consume twenty-one pages, and all you would have said --- is that at one time in your so called life ---- you flatulated into a car seat.

now then.... this article, like so-many others on this site, reads on the brutalities that police inflict upon the masses. the commentary readily bashes the police, some, even blame the civilians, but, this mode of thinking sets up a dialect, 'police vs. the people;' doesn't offer a solution to prevent police from committing these atrocities.

my point - police are paid to enforce a corrupt body of statutory law. they are subjected to much more mind control, than the general population is, yet, they are treated as expendable pawns, by both, their employer, and, the masses. that's an atrocity, in my view.

maybe, the book should opened on policing training programs. i'd like to see what causes these robo-cops to run amuck. perhaps, it would also, give the masses, a better understanding on how to deal with police; preventing the war dialect.

lastly, @nonymous 5029, if your judgment is the standard, by which intellect is measured, and, in your view, i'm "wasting your time"... perhaps, you're missing vital pieces to much a larger equation; which for me, translates to: "i've followed my orders successfully." sorry for the confusion. i'd likely, have gotten along with you in the "real" world.

1.Write as though your speak to the laymen and not to your intellectual peers - at least in the public realm.

2.You have an arsenal of language and grammatical tools at your disposal. Does that mean you need to fire all your munitions at once? No. Linguistic restraint is just as important as linguistic descriptiveness. Just as a painter need not use all the colors of the spectrum, or the musician need not use all notes on the scale - the writer should only use what is necessary to convey his point.

Reply (Sep 01 2013, 7:02 PM):
I disagree. A true libertarian acknowledges personal responsibility before all else. An individual that voluntarily contracts their services to the state and willing accepts indoctrination has no excuse if their behavior violates common decency and /or violates or brutalizes the citizenry. Every person is accountable for their own actions. Belonging to a certain organization under certain conditions is not a reason for forgiveness or pardon should an individual victimize their fellow human beings.

An individual who works for the State is an expandable pawn. It is not an atrocity. It is reality and it is the nature of power and the State. It is natural law and it has been happening since humans first formed familial alliances. No force, or idea, or awakening will change the abhorrent reality that is the State.

To reiterate my point, read up on the reigns' of King Henry the 8th, Stalin, Lennon, Hitler, Julius Caesar, Castro, Napoleon, Mao, and countless others.

The dialect of the Police vs. the People is already established and becomes more apparent as our society becomes more authoritarian. The praetorian class is a parasitic cancer draining the life, moral and productivity from the common citizen. If the balance of power weighs too heavily in regards to the praetorian class then it is up to the citizens to assemble and fight to restore power back into their hands - by peaceful or violent means. It is naive to think we can all just get along with those that display utter contempt for liberty - that those whose boots that crush our fruit, our properties, and our bodies will come to an empathetic understanding of the common person's plight. The police, the State, in these times have unofficially declared war on its own benefactors. You can sit on a fence if you'd like - but don't pretend there are no sides.

To a human time is a finite resource. You can use it productively or you can throw it way on unproductive ventures. It is up to each individual to decide the best use of their time, but it most certainty can be wasted.
You have not wasted my time.

Reply (Sep 01 2013, 7:32 PM)
have no standard of measuring intellect. I'm not in this world to prove I'm smarter or better or faster. Many MANY many people outrank my intellectuality. All I can do is absorb what is beneficial to me and my fellow humans. I am not superior to you in any regard. Should I write a post that tells you your long-winded - it is not to belittle you - I'm just saying "Dude...............you're long-winded............take it easy.

@nonymous 5029, i disagree with most of the philosophies you've set fourth, however, i made a vow to dear friend of mine, (who is deceased now), that i would not let my ego interfere with the mission at hand. after having read the latter of your comments, i realize, that your initial advice was sound, and, that i did let my ego run rampant - without regard for that advice. i'm sorry.

i know where you're are coming from, so, i will take your comment away with me, with much consideration. regards, L.S.

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